Market Research Surveys: The Complete Guide

Complete guide on how to successfully conduct Market Research Surveys and Market Analysis. Learn about the
two types of market research survey methods - Qualitative and Quantitative research surveys and the right Market Research Process to generate maximum insight.

Market research surveys are questionnaires that are designed and sent to collect responses on a desired subject or business interest
by asking the
right survey questions. It usually targets consumers
in order to understand purchasing behavior, interest
and expectations, but can also be conducted for academic purposes and studies.

A market research survey seeks to understand a certain “pattern” in a given market - which can be segregated based
on geography, age, gender and other demographics based on the nature of the study. This “pattern” provides
insight into future trends using trend analysis, conjoint analysis and turf analysis.

A survey is a set of questions that form a questionnaire. These survey questions are
typically
answered
online. A survey questionnaire can be sent via email, SMS, QR Code etc, to be answered on a web or
mobile
browser.

Additionally, Mobile Offline App is an exclusive feature of QuestionPro’s market research survey software that allows
users to capture survey research responses on a mobile or tablet, even in locations that do not have internet connection or suffer from unstable connection.

What is the best distribution method for your survey to get maximum and complete
responses? Will
Email surveys serve you better or a physical tablet/mobile based kiosk be better to collect
responses? Does
majority of your target audience own a smartphone for survey links to be sent over SMS?

While email surveys by far remain the most popular form of market research survey data
collection, B2C
businesses
are also exploring kiosk-based tablets that capture live surveys from visiting customers in stores
and
business events.

For qualitative research, specialized survey portals (such as QuestionPro Communities) are often the
choice
of businesses who want to generate innovative ideas with less restrictive questions and more
open-ended
questions to pass on ideas.

Survey Analysis, which subsequently leads to market analysis, is the most critical aspect
of any
market
research study. While companies in the past have been more prone to using Excel sheets for graphs
and
diagrams from survey data, there is a rapid transition to in-built market research survey software platforms that
automatically provide live survey analytics, all in real-time!

Your survey report is the complete set of conclusions drawn from survey analysis. This includes what
the
current trend is and what projections appear to be. A good survey report forms a complete thesis
based on
the market research survey objectives and survey data analysis.

Conducting a successful market research survey and it’s subsequent market research survey analysis requires thorough
planning and
structuring. Here are some key steps to follow while conducting market research surveys :

Survey creation today has to be on a digital platform using online survey tools. There
are
several reasons why online surveys have quickly taken over
paper-based
surveys, including, exponentially
fast survey creation.

Survey distribution methods vary based on the survey creation platform. For instance,
using
QuestionPro you
can send your survey using both online and offline methods such as email, SMS, QR Code,
Tablet/Mobile based
Kiosk using the Offline Mobile App.

Receiving your survey data is real-time with platforms like QuestionPro, and so is survey
analysis. Manual
survey data update and market analysis is usually done using Excel sheets, which is possible, but
requires
additional man-power and time.

If you want to conduct specialized market analysis for the best insights, that requires using methods
such as
Turf and Conjoint Analysis. All survey analysis methods are real-time and automated in
QuestionPro.

A good market research survey enables businesses with insights on what will be the most
profitable
way
to position their product in the market. A good business strategy is when data oriented market
research
is
leveraged to get a competitive edge over existing competition through creative product
placements.

Nothing dictates a product’s journey more than its price. How much are potential
consumers
willing to pay for a new feature? Will decreasing your product price give you a sales boost or will
improving functionality increase sales? These questions can only be answered by directly and
exclusively
reaching out to your audience through market research surveys.

Finally, all the above add up to how you intend to promote your product line - whether through
organic or
paid promotions. Insights collected from market research surveys plays a critical role in understanding what
type of
language and highlights will work best in promotions. This is the reason why every successful
business
conducts a thorough market analysis through research studies before pushing for a major marketing,
promotional or advertising drive.

Focus group based qualitative research usually involve getting a few people for a
face-to-face
group discussion on a certain subject. Questions are usually based on “if”s around a certain
product
or
subject of interest.

Physical focus groups are becoming more and more obscure with the rise in platforms like Communities where both data collection and market analysis can be
done
in a
single online platform.

On-call interviews

One of the successful and still widely used qualitative research methods is conducting on-call
interviews, mostly used when the respondent is a business leader or senior official. This allows
the
researcher to “open-up” the conversation such that the research sounds more like a conversation,
that
spans
across a number of topics of interest, and less like a survey.

Innovation research

Innovation research, also referred to as innovation games, are specialized focus group studies
where the final goal is to crowd-source innovative ideas. Platforms like Communities have made
it
possible
for businesses to conduct such qualitative research remotely and tap into Global respondents.
This
allows
organizations to get the best ideas from the best minds without the barrier of physical
presence.

Given that qualitative market research by nature is conducted at a smaller scale than
quantitative survey-oriented research studies, they are relatively much cheaper.

In-depth insights

Due to the open-nature of qualitative research and the freedom of the researcher to dive deeper
on any subject of interest, these studies have the potential to provide deep insights to ven minute
aspects
of the research.

Flexibility

The same nature of qualitative research that offers in-depth insights, is also responsible for
the great flexibility they possess. This gives the researcher the ability to identify sub-topics of
interest
as the conversation proceeds with the respondents and dive deeper.

Answering the "Why"

Qualitative market research is a popular option when the objective of the research is to find
answers to “why”s, meaning, the causes behind occurrences, events or actions which require politely
pressing
the respondents to answer key questions.

Quantitative Market Research Surveys is used by organizations and researchers to conduct market
research
studies
through structured questionnaires and utilizes statistical survey data analysis methods to derive meaningful
and
actionable insights.

Once conducted through traditional pen-and-paper , today Quantitative Research makes use of advanced
market research survey
software platforms that add incremental value to the quality of surveys, responses and insight.

While survey questions may
appear
to be simplistic, there are great details to them - Single
select questions, multiple-choice questions, rating scale questions etc. There are also several
types of
scales and questions, such as the Semantic Differential Scale, Likert Scale, Dichotomous
question-type
etc.

Moreover, to make it simpler for researcher to create surveys, there are over 250 ready-made survey templates to simply select, edit and send!

Survey Design

Survey design refers as much to
the look and feel of the
survey, as
much as it does to the logic
and branching techniques used in the survey. The idea of a good survey design is to make survey
questions
more precise for the respondents while ensuring consistent branding and personalizations to make
these
online surveys visually appealing.

Survey collection depends on the method of distribution.
If a survey software was
utlized,
response collection is real-time for platforms like QuestionPro.

Even better, QuestionPro also enables you to live-track survey responses based on who has not
started, started but completion is pending and fully completed the survey in a powerful
dashboard.

Survey Analysis

Survey Analytics in quantitative research makes use of
powerful methods such as
Conjoint
Analysis, Turf Analysis and SWOT Analysis among others. The application of these analytical
methods
to
get
concrete data-oriented insights makes quantitative research a favourite among business and
academic
researchers.

In QuestionPro’s online survey platform, all analytics are done by the engine in real-time, fully
automated and through advanced analytics programs.

Because of the precise nature of quantitative market research surveys, the data and subsequent analysis
provides organizations and researchers the ability to make decisions that are fully backed by data.

Zero scope for analytical errors:

If you are using QuestionPro which is a fully package survey software, all the way from creating
to analysing market research surveys, there is “zero” scope for analytical errors. All data is computed
by
the system in real-time and the analytics reports are error-free!

Concrete projections:

Time projections and trends are one of prime reasons for quantitative research methods. Given
that data collection and analysis are error-free on a survey software, so are the projections made using
the
various statistical survey analysis techniques.

Statistical Survey Analysis techniques that drive Market Analysis is primarily done for Quantitative Research.
Here
are the most popular and widely used statistical survey analysis methods for Market Analysis :

TURF stands for Total Unduplicated Reach and Frequency. Market analysis using TURF provides details
on
aspects such as user frequency and marketing reach without any duplicates, hence giving a real
estimate
of
market potential.

Conjoint Analysis is used to
understand how different
attributes
(or features) of a given product
or service range in importance to a customer or potential consumer. Conjoint is widely used in
modern
Market
Analysis given the feature-rich digital products of our time.

MaxDiff Analysis is used to understand consumer preference across different attributes. For
example - A product’s branding, advertising, features etc. all become attributes for response
collective
under this type of statistical survey analysis technique. MaxDiff Analysis has some similarities to
Conjoint
Analysis, however it is much simpler to implement and use.

Gap Analysis typically is used to measure actual performance vs desired performance. This type of
statistical
market analysis answers the question on what needs to be done to move the needle to a more desired
position.

SWOT stands for Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threat. A SWOT analysis is a market analysis
technique
that takes a holistic view of an organization's key strengths and weaknesses from a business
standpoint.

Trend Analysis is widely used to analyse data over time
with
the intention of identifying a plottable trend
and relationship in the data changes. This trend may then be used to predict future trends in the
movement
of data.

Text Analysis is a technique that researchers implement to arrange and bring structure to unorganized data. Analysis of text in documents or graphics is done to convert it into computer readable language.